Joe Judge learned a lot from ex-Giants coach Ray Perkins, who died Wednesday

Ray Perkins was in town for a practice at Southern Mississippi in the spring of 2012 and shared some coaching wisdom that Joe Judge never has forgotten. Judge was an assistant at the school before taking a job with the Patriots later that year, and Perkins was coaching at nearby Jones County Community College as his career was winding down.

The two shared memories of their time at Alabama – Perkins as head coach for his alma mater, where he succeeded legendary Bear Bryant from 1983-86, and Judge as an assistant under another Alabama legend, Nick Saban. And while they enjoyed stories about coaching for the Crimson Tide, it was the lesson that Perkins imparted to Judge that resonates today as much as it did then.

"He spent a lot of time with me that day actually talking about being a young coach and really working with players and developing the players," Judge said Wednesday. "That was the biggest thing he shared with me, and that’s a message that’s been echoed to me by a lot of people I’ve been around that have been very successful."

Judge thought about that conversation after learning earlier in the day that Perkins, who first made a name for himself as the Giants’ head coach in 1979, died at age 79. It was a fitting tribute to a coach who did for the Giants more than 40 years ago what Judge is doing now: restoring order to a team that had floundered for years.

"The development of players is what he really hammered with me, and that really came after a spring practice and watching a lot of young guys out there trying to plug guys around and find the right spots for them," Judge said. "He was just sharing some wisdom along the lines of, ‘Hey listen, give everybody an opportunity to improve, and don’t make your mind up too early from what you think someone can do.’"

Sound familiar, Giants fans? That’s exactly what’s happening with this year’s team, as Judge has taken players from a variety of backgrounds and talent levels and has begun to mold them into a competitive team that is in striking distance of the team’s first divisional title since 2011 and just the second playoff appearance since then. Judge’s team has won four straight to recover from an 0-5 start and a 1-7 record, as the Giants host the Cardinals in another critical game while they vie with the 5-7 Washington Football Team for first place in the NFC East.

It is still too soon to know how good Judge will be as the Giants’ coach. But if he can do for this year’s team what Perkins did for a franchise that had known nothing but failure since the 1963 season, then he will have lifted the team up by the bootstraps after years of failure.

"Ray was George Young’s first hire as general manager in 1979," Giants president and CEO John Mara said in a statement. "I remember George saying, ‘He will make it very uncomfortable for our players to lose.’"

Judge has made it similarly uncomfortable with his demanding style, which many have likened to Bill Parcells and which Parcells himself has approved of in a recent conversation with Newsday.

"I just know he has established some law and order, and I think that’s a good thing," Parcells said.

Perkins inherited a much bleaker and more longstanding run of failure than Judge. He was hired just months after "The Fumble," the play that symbolized the team’s rock-bottom moment when Joe Pisarcik’s botched handoff to Larry Csonka in the final seconds of a game against the Eagles was converted into the winning touchdown by cornerback Herman Edwards. The Giants were 74-134-4 in the 15 seasons before Perkins took over.

By 1981, he had guided the Giants to the playoffs for the first time since 1963.

Perkins left the Giants after the 1982 season when he accepted his dream job of coaching at Alabama.

"He left behind a team that had Lawrence Taylor, Phil Simms and Harry Carson, among others, and this was the nucleus of the group that would go on to great success in the 1980s and win two Super Bowls," Mara said. "He certainly left our team in much better shape than he found it in, including having Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick on his staff."

Judge coaches in the image of Perkins, demanding nothing but the best from his players and doing everything he can to find the right roles for them. A hallmark of Judge’s four-game winning streak has been his willingness to experiment with younger players, even undrafted free agents, and the result has been improved play on a sustained basis after a difficult beginning.

"Coach was a guy who touched a lot of lives in the National Football League as well as college football," Judge said. "There are a lot of relationships around this country with him. I appreciate everything he did for me, the time he shared with me, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

Judge was born on Dec. 31, 1981 – just four days after Perkins led the Giants to their first playoff victory since a 1958 Eastern Conference playoff game against the Browns. He has grown up to be another in a long line of Giants’ coaches, one who just might have the potential to make an impact as important as the man who left this earth on Wednesday.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”